look at me now

For this week I chose to do some research on PPT. The teacher that I am working alongside uses power point presentations in almost every unit. She normally usually uses PPT for the introduction of rules. I normally provide students with handouts and verbally review what is written on the handouts. I think that I need a "master" set of rules that we can all look at as a class, because it provides a nice point of reference for the class to focus the attention on.

Using PPT can be very useful in P.E because we are always on the move. If I can get all my rules out on a PPT, I then have a set of rules that can be projected anywhere that my class meets. My class is currently in a team handball unit so I decided to create a PPT that briefly explains the rules.

Resources

1-http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpoint101/a/begin_guide.htm

I found this website here on our itec wiki. The site provides a pretty simple step by step way on how to build a power point presentation. I have used ppt previously in my undergrad but when I had not been called on to use my ppt knowledge for a few years I forgot exactly how to build one. After accessing this easy to use website I felt confident again developing a ppt. Overall ppt's are very simple to build and this website helped me to recall the information that I needed to put together a quality ppt.


2- http://usateamhandball.org

For my second resource I went to the U.S team handball's official website. the website helped me put together the rules for my class (the ppt). The website covers a wide variety of team handball specific stuff. the site is useful for physical educators because you can pick up the rules, the history, and view videos of the worlds top players. this is a great one stop shop for everything team handball and could be a great place to send students to before they begin a team handball unit.




Week 2

http://online.howtomaster.com/training/html/itc2/itc20201/page1.html

Virtual field trips are a good way to expose students to places that they otherwise would not be able to see. I like the concept, but when I did research on my own I found very little that would be useful in a P.E classroom. What I was able to do was figure out the four main components that make up a “virtual field trip”. The four are listed below:

1-e-FieldTrip Journal
2-Virtual Visit
3-Posting Questions via the Ask the Experts Web Form
4-Live Interactive Web Chat with the Experts

The format is set up in a way that allows me as a physical education instructor to be creative in how I present the material to the students. Students can experience the 4 components of the virtual field trip without having to actually experience the entire trip online.

What I did here was act as if I was working through a soccer unit. This lesson could be on introducing the students to soccer and the impact it has around the world. I have choosen a youtube video that shows and explains the history and importance of one of the major european soccer clubs. After the video I would have students, in groups, create questions (step 3) that they want to ask an “Expert”. After the students have created their questions I can have them ask an expert (me/ step 4) and as a class we can have a discussion.

this roughly qualifies as a virtual field trip but it does follow the 4 steps that make up a virtual field trip and it can be just as useful. Students will spend an entire class period (35 mins) immersed in soccers global impact.

The video I have as the link would be the “virtual visit” (step 2).

Resources
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olQfnZMlqaw
I use you tube all the time for contextualizing and creating my lessons in physical education. Many times I will download a video and show it to my class so that they can watch what the top athletes look like. for example I used a 4 minute clip in my badminton unit and it totally increased the tempo and the level of participation in our badminton unit. the one thing about youtube is that you have to be picky about what clips you choose to show your class. There are some great instructional videos on there but there are also some terrible ones. Before selecting a clip I would recommend cross checking the name of the coach and athlete along with the progression of the skills to make sure that they are all developmentally appropriate.

http://www.aahperd.org/

My second resource for the week is the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Dance website (AAHPERD). AAHPERD is one of the major websites that in the country that physical education teachers can turn to for up to speed information on anything that has to do with movement. AAHPERD is the main "governing body" of physical education throughout the country. They host yearly conferences and are currently working with the first lady Michelle Obama on a national campaign to get children more active. Each state has their own sub division of AAHPERD with California's being CAHPERD. a cool website to check on a weekly basis as it has links to professional journals, job postings and the most recent "movements" in the world of physical activity.


Week 3

For this week I decided to follow Miss Helmer and create a photo-babble. I created my own photo-babble that can be accessed through the following link:
http://www.fotobabble.com/media/edit/54418

Why
I would use photo-babble to give parents and new students an idea of who I am. I think using this will put a face and a voice to a name. Using photo-babble could potentially ease students and parents potential fears about who an instructor is and what they stand for.
Photo-babble could also, 1- compliment a normal handout syllabus to students and, 2:- act as syllabus for curios parents. Most hardcopy syllabus will never make it home and most parents don’t want to take the time to read a 2-page syllabus. The photo-babble acts as a “short”, and is an appropriate introduction for teachers to make to parents.

Resources
1- http://www.fotobabble.com/
This is the website that I accessed some basic information on photobabbles. The website provided an easy way for teachers to create their own photobabble. The whole process took only a few mintues, but will more than likely save an instructor loads of time answering the same introductory questions from students parents.

2- http://www.voki.com/
The second website that I checked out was www.voki.com. Voki is a website that creates avatars for teachers to use when they want to pass on information to second and third parties. The website is essentially similar to the fotobabble website listed above except the physical character is an avatar rather than a true photograph.

Week 4

This week I decided to use create a wiki. As we all are now aware a wiki is essentially an open forum where people can share information. I created my wiki for my 9th grade physical education class. Since we are doing a swimming unit and our next lesson is going to cover the proper breathing technique for the freestlye I decided to upload a youtube video with Michael Phelps swim coach covering some important cues.
Having a place that students can access important information at home is so much easier than bringing a video like this to the classroom. At the high school that I currently work at the 6 P.E teachers all share one projector. It is very hard to get any time with the projector. When we do not have access to the projector we are unable to show the students any type of media. If I could have a wiki in place I would only need to post the video on our class site then check (through a mandatory posting) to see if the students viewed the clip.

Here is the video that I uploaded for students to view
http://spencersphysicaleducation.wikia.com/wiki/Video:Freestyle_Breathing_with_Michael_Phelps,_Katie_Hoff,_%26_Bob_Bowman

Resources

www.pecentral.com

This is a great website for physical education teachers to use. pecentral has lessons on every type of physical activity that can be imagined. Besides being a place that educators can turn to for quality lesson plans, pecentral also acts as an information hub for pe teachers. The site lists everything from job openings to how to write a grant letter. Every physical education teacher should check out the site because if you have a relevant physical education based question this site more than likely has an answer.

http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/pestandards.pdf

The second resource that I researched this week was the state of California’s physical education frameworks. The framework lists all of the states standards for grades k-12. The framework differs from the standards in that it breaks down and gives examples of what each grade level and specific standard should look like. The frameworks are useful because it provides detail about what and how each P.E class should look like.